Twilight from the future
by Vuld Edone
Summary: Equestria will end next Tuesday but not to worry, the future is present to help Applejack unmake all the tiny events that will cause the apocalypse later on the world and right now in her life.
1. The horseshoe

**My ponified version of the French web show "le visiteur du futur", with Future Twilight in the main role. **

* * *

It was one or thirteen o'clock and basically the very beginning of afternoon at the farm, by the buckets of fruits and the barns with chimneys. They were set past the pumpkin field playing horseshoes and thus far the pegasus was leading.

One pitch over the fence and one horseshoe left, "I still have the closest throw!" The fiery blue mare said with pride. "Just try and beat it."

Applejack took a glare at her remaining shot, picked the shoe, snorted and got interrupted by a blinding ball of thunder. When it finished, both mares saw their friend Twilight in a torn leather suit, her mane ruffled, eye patched, a bandage on her forehead and the scar on her cheek.

"By all means!" She desperately yelled while jumping in front of Applejack: "Don't throw that horseshoe!"

"Nice to see ya Twilight!" The brave mare answered. "Wanna play with us?"

"What's with this outfit and all?" Dash loudly wondered.

Twilight stopped, looked at her messy dark hair and brushing them a bit, alas in vain: "Oh, that." She stressed with a smile. "I guess those past next days were a bit hectic after all… which reminds me" and she yelled: "Don't throw that horseshoe!"

"But why?" The cowmare asked, at a loss, the horseshoe back between her teeth.

"Thank you for asking… Because if you throw that horseshoe, this! is what happens!" Both mares paced back at her yell. "The horseshoe will hit the stake and you'll win."

Twilight then looked at her two friends, a quiet smile on her face as they recovered from the idea. Dash crossed her arms in disbelief as the farm mare, raising her hat, approached her studious and magical friend.

"Uh…" she hesitated. "It's kinda the goal?"

"Yes!" Twilight answered. "But then Dash's self-esteem will be crushed, she will feel humiliated and will challenge you to a competition! You will accept but she will use her wings so you will defy her to race in the Running of the Leaves where your eagerness to win will make you both cheat and ultimately prevent all leaves from falling off the trees!"

As their friend was catching back her breath Dash grunted, but Applejack felt bad. "Well I didn't kno-"

"I haven't finished!" The unicorn cut her. "Because then you'll learn a valuable lesson about friendship and you will gallop together to make the last leaves fall and it will be the best Running of the Leaves from pony's memory!"

"I uh great!" Applejack shook her head, a bit disconcerted. "So I throw it!"

"Nooooo!" Her friend's hoof poked her snout. "Because ponies will get so inspired by your excelling spirit that they will follow your example and competitions will spark all over Equestria! Thousands and thousands of ponies will race each other on a daily basis, so much that their hooves will get hurt, making horseshoes a fashion again, everypony will wear them and they will wear them out so much that in seventy-two years and three months exactly not one horseshoe will be left to play horseshoe pitching!"

She paused again, as if exhausted by her long sentence. "So?" The blue pegasus asked, not really impressed. "It doesn't sound that horri-"

"Also!" Twilight panted, took the sweat off her forehead. "The vibrations of thousands and thousands of hooves with horseshoes constantly striding the ground will make leaves fall on a daily basis! Trees won't grow fruits, it will be winter all year, provoking the worst drought ever witnessed since a thousand years!"

This time both mares gasped in horror, now feeling horrible the farm mare took off her Stetson hat and put it on her chest as her friend finished:

"So whatever you do, Applejack! Don't throw that horseshoe!"

"I… I'm sorry Twilight. I didn't know." And looking at her friend's appearance: "I didn't want ya to starve…"

"Me?" And Twilight chuckled. "Oh no! I'm just from next Tuesday, bye!"

With those words her horn glowed, a sudden blinding light engulfed her and in a flash the purple mare was gone. Her two friends left behind looked at each other, rather dismayed by what had happened and by the renewed silence of the farm.

Applejack weighed the horseshoe on the toe of her hoof. "I don't wanna cause a drought!" She exclaimed, and Rainbow Dash at her side nodded, then grinned.

"So…" The fiery pegasus said, "you forfeit?"

The earth mare looked at her friend, shocked then defiant: "Oh ya're on!" She threw the horseshoe, and won.


	2. The tree

This was a perfect morning with the sun set shining on trees and their many fruits. Applejack put the third bucket down ready to tackle a new row of tough harvesting. She raised her two back legs and got surprised by a roaring ball of thunder.

Her friend Twilight Sparkle in her leather suit rent jumped and yelled: "By all means! Don't kick that tree!"

"Mh mh" muttered the farm mare her muzzle in the dirt. She got up, shook her mane: "I suppose ya're not here for a courtesy visit." At the disarming smile of the young mare she sighed, finished dusting her hat.

"Now" She straightened the Stetson right on her head. "Why in tarnation shouldn't I kick that tree?"

"I'm sensing that you are not taking my warnings very seriously" Twilight frowned.

"And why should I?"

"Because!" The purple mare joyfully yelled at her friend's roll of eyes: "If you kick that tree, this! is what happens! The bark of that tree is harder than usual so you will hurt your thigh and develop a twitching that will in turn make you very bitter in your old days."

For some seconds Applejack waited, making sure she wouldn't get interrupted, then: "Nothing else?" And her friend happily shook her head, nothing else, she would become unbearable when she would be old. "Well" she guessed, "better leave that tree alone then."

"Yes, it's better to give up on the throne and those tons of gold."

"Throne? Gold? Wait" The brave mare raised an eyebrow: "are ya hiding anything from me?"

At which question the young unicorn pawed, embarrassed. "Eeeh… I might have skipped the part where you make a speech as Ponyville's representative, and your twitching will keep making you smirk at the word 'Princess'?" She forced a smile: "And ponies will get so angry at you that they'll force Celestia to banish you from Equestria?"

Banished, the word was a cold shower for the mare who, stunned, tried to stammer her innocence. She was pleading Twilight for protection and her friend quickly pressed on:

"You will be so angered by such injustice that you will gather ponies and found a new country, and with hard work you will eventually build an empire that will make Equestria pale in comparison! Also, Rainbow Dash will be your slave."

"But!" Applejack denied: "But I would never-"

"Then!" The unicorn interrupted: "Applebloom will betray you and helped by Dash they will throw you into a dungeon while your little sister takes the throne."

"Those rascals!" Applejack growled, shocked by such words. "I knew they shouldn't be trusted!"

"With that done they will invade Equestria, triggering years of war and misery, the end of Harmony and the return of eternal chaos!" And the young unicorn pointed a hoof directly on her friend's snout: "So you see Applejack, that's! why you must not kick that tree!"

It took a few blinks for the farm mare to recover, shake her straw mane and breathe. Things were hurling in her head like never.

"Twilight… why didn't ya begin there?"

"I know, I know." Her friend answered with a sorry voice. "It's just that, if you threw your sister in the dungeon first, you would live ridiculously rich and powerful so I thought it was better to just tell you you would become grumpy and unbearable…"

And the purple unicorn offered her best smile, her fringe cut sharp floating just above her nervous eye, the other hidden by the eye patch.

"Wait a minute…" Applejack threw a suspicious look. "When them traitors betrayed me, on which side were ya?"

"Me?" Twilight giggled as her horn began to glow. "Oh, Applejack! I'm just from next Tuesday! And in a hurry, bye!" With that and a flash she was gone.

Looking at where her friend was the farm mare waved her leg in the air, making sure it happened, then groaned. Out of all this tittle-tattle she had only understood one thing for sure, she was grumpy.

Actually, she was feeling the urge to kick something…


	3. The pastry

It had been hard work breaking this rock but now facing the remains Applejack took out the sweat and sighed. Rarity's garden would be back to normal in no time, as would her friend from the market when they would take those pebbles away.

In the meantime she deserved some snack, took the muffin out of her hoofkerchief and bit the plain air as lightning and thunder rolled behind her.

"By all means!" Yelled the familiar voice, "don't eat that muffin!"

She didn't even wait, the brave mare threw the pastry on the ground and began stomping on it frantically. When finished she turned to her studious friend in her torn leather suit and silly eyepatch:

"There!" She emphasized. "I smashed it! Happy?"

"Oh, uhm… yes…" Twilight hesitated before the mare's angry looks.

She then pawed a bit, confused by what had happened, let out a nervous short laugh. The surrounding got her attention, this nice weather, the quiet town and its happy colors.

"So…" she returned to the mare and her Stetson hat. "You don't want to know why?"

"No." Applejack bluntly answered. "No I sure don't."

"Applejack, is everything okay? You seem tense."

She wasn't tense, she was pissed off, she had just smashed her snack and she didn't want to know why, she was tired of all this madness, she only wanted to have some time alone. "I… I didn't mean to…" Twilight looked down and, sorry, in a flash of light she went away.

The cowmare sighed, brushed away her blond fringe then noticed Rarity coming.

"Was it Twilight just a second ago?" The gracious mare asked, looking at where the young student was. "Is she working as a road sweeper now?"

"No Rarity, she ain't no road sweeper." Her brave friend sighed. "She's from the future."

"From the future?" Rarity wondered, then gasped: "The future must be horrible! Horrible!"

But she quickly calmed before the mare's glance and clearing her voice the pure unicorn shook her purple mane, regained some composure:

"Of course, it can have its good sides. Imagine! I could lose something, and she would appear in a brightful light and help me find it! Did you lose something?"

"Yes, my muffin." Applejack looked at the daintiness strayed on the grass. "She made me squash it."

"My! But don't worry dear" She answered hovering her errands with her magic glow. "I actually met a mare and, well, here!"

She took a muffin out of the sack, made it fall on Applejack's hoof and her friend rejoiced, thanked her for the gift. "It's nothing" Rarity assured before promising to come help with the pebbles, just after putting her errands in the kitchen.

"Sure thing" the brave mare nodded, licking her lips at the delicious muffin she had. Now alone she closed her eyes, opened her mouth, approached it to her teeth and bit, but bit it right through the crust, a morsel in her mouth, enjoyed the taste.

A ball of thunder made her spit it all out.

"Oh no, Applejack!" Twilight ran to her, her ruffled mane adding to her disarray. "Are you okay? Did you… oh no, you ate it already."

And tears appeared in the student's eyes, making Applejack's heart waver. Suddenly her friend embraced her, clutched her tight and cried.

"I'm so sorry Applejack! I arrived too late! I couldn't… save you…"

Panic ran through the honest mare at the thought of what she just did, and she felt suddenly guilty, and scared, and she patted her friend's back with an uneasy smile.

"No, no! I didn't eat it!" She hastily said. "I didn't swallow one bit of it, see?" And she showed her tongue clean.

"Oh, good!" Twilight had completely returned to calm, a bright smile on her face. "Because I wasn't sure if it was that muffin either."

"What?!" The mare's hat fell on her face, hiding shock and complete dismay, and a full array of opposite feelings between relief and rage. Twilight was now so happy, so innocent that when she raised the hat back in its place Applejack couldn't gather the strength to be mad, she didn't even know what to say.

Luckily the student did for her:

"Actually, you should better not eat muffins for the next twenty-four years. Just to be sure."

"Twenty- ya can't be serious Twilight! And didn't ya say ya were only from next Tuesday?"

"Exactly! See you then, bye!" She happily answered as her horn flared, put a blinding light and in a flash she was gone.

And now Applejack found herself alone in Rarity's garden, near pebbles, with a muffin that was making her stomach growl and she didn't know anymore if she could safely eat it or not.


	4. The breakfast

At Twilight's door the disgruntled mare gave it some knocks then waited, slapped her tongue a few times to resist a yawn. She knocked some more and her studious friend appeared, mane disheveled.

The purple mare stared, blinked and rubbed her eyes: "Oh, good morning Applejack! Good very, very, very early in the morning." She said glancing at the dawn.

"Well sorry Twilight, but today is Tuesday." Applejack stated, not too happy. "So now ya'll have some explaining to do, with ya harassing me the whole week and all!"

And she waited for the unicorn taken aback to give an answer, other than wonder what her tired friend could mean.

"I… have an idea!" The student smiled, "I was about to have breakfast! Why don't you join me?"

She offered some space for her disgruntled friend to enter, showed her the table with fried eggs, some bread and a big glass of orange juice. There only was one plate so as she let the cowmare sit Twilight went for the kitchen, spoke softly to avoid waking up Spike:

"Don't wait for me, I won't be long!" She happily said. "Then we'll solve what I'm sure is just a big misunderstanding!"

"Well" The brave mare answered, smiling back, "that's so neighborly of ya!"

Once the door was closed Applejack looked at the stair, at the room slightly open where she guessed the little dragon was sleeping, and she felt relaxed. She sighed with pleasure, lapped the orange juice and then shivered when the ball of light and thunder burst behind her.

"Applejack! By all means!" The mare's teeth clenched fast. "Don't touch the eggs!"

The cowmare turned on her stool to see her purple friend distressed, bandage at her head and her ruffled hair all spiked. She pointed at her as if a ghost, stammering words of disbelief, then she pointed hurriedly at the kitchen door.

"Oh, yes, that too!" Twilight calmed, smiling and then suddenly yelled: "Don't tell her about me!"

"But she's ya!" Her tired friend yelled back: "Ya're her! I dunno' anymore!"

"And I know that if you tell her" The last vowel lasted on the student's tongue before exploding: "this! is what happens!"

On her stool the mare had almost hopped in fear, looking desperately at the kitchen still closed and she felt her future friend approaching.

"She will ask a lot of questions that you won't be able to answer and so she will go ask experts at Canterlot, making her miss the Grand Ball Supreme that will happen in exactly two weeks three days and fourteen hours from now!"

Applejack's hooves on the table were slipping to keep her from falling back any more as she smiled nervously to Twilight's explanations.

"Since she won't come Pinkie will give up on her cheerleader idea and Ponyville will win! But! This victory will attract crowds to the town and forty-six years from now the Mayor's daughter, struggling with impossible urbanism problems, will be defeated by the first elected frog in Equestria! Thus, provoking a new era of tolerance…"

The unicorn's smiling muzzle was almost touching Applejack's nervous one.

"… that will vanish when ponies discover that frogs can't speak! Their confidence in authorities will plunge, the Law will disappear and four centuries from now? Six colts will imprison the Princess! So please please please!" Twilight's eyes were trembling before those of the shocked earth pony. "Don't tell her…"

All she could do to answer was nod slightly, just before they heard steps behind the closed door. With Twilight coming back Twilight panicked, looked under the table and plunged, leaving her friend alone to welcome back the purple mare.

"I heard voices, where you…" The student stopped. "You didn't touch your eggs?"

Applejack was about to answer when she felt her leg poked. No touching the eggs, so she smiled nervously.

"You don't like them?" Twilight approached, a bit worried. "I cooked them myself… are you sure you don't want just a taste?" She pleaded.

"I uh…" The mare suddenly twitched, her leg hit by an angry hoof. "I'm not angry! I already ate!" She sweated, looking down and up at the two purple unicorns.

"Oh... I understand…" Twilight sadly sighed. "I guess I will eat later."

And she turned away to bring back her plate to the kitchen, to her distressed friend trying to stop her but the door closed and just then Twilight jumped out from under the table.

"That was close!" She rejoiced.

"Why couldn't I eat them eggs?" Applejack grunted.

"What? Oh, because it's gross!" Her friend grimaced. "I mean, eggs, bwah!" And to her friend's hissing ears she added, thoughtfully: "Wait… this is the present, eggs are fine! Silly me… so, you don't want them?"

The cowmare was too stunned to even listen, only snapped out of it when she saw the purple unicorn catch the fried eggs, throw them in the air and swallow them, then lick her lips with delight.

Before she could wonder why her friend was angry, they heard a groaning voice:

"What's all the noise?" Spike was on the stair, arms crossed. "Some of us are trying to-" He was cut by Twilight jumping on him, clutching him against her torn leather suit so happily. "Eh! Where is that coming from!" He said, choking.

"From the future!" She happily answered, rubbing her cheek. "Next Tuesday to be precise."

"We! Are! Tuesday!" Applejack screamed, exasperated.

"And I'm from the next one, bye!" The studious mare smiled under the blinding light of her horn, and in a flash she was gone, leaving Spike completely at a loss and Twilight rushing in to see what was happening.

"Did I miss something?" And she saw the empty plate. "Eh!" The unicorn got angered: "You did eat them after all! Are you playing with me?"

To which the brave mare simply fell off face first on the plate, hat hiding the despair in her eyes.


	5. The time lord

There was only the bare land for miles, in the middle of her field with not a single pony in sight Applejack listened to that silence, filled her lungs with the fresh air then put the harness back on to pull the plough.

She didn't even fret when the ball of thunder hurled at her side, Twilight with the cut at her cheek and that black leather suit, jumping right at her:

"Give me your hat!" The student screamed.

And she caught the Stetson, pulled it away right in the air then in a glow back on her head so deep that the horn pierced through, all before the cowmare taken aback.

"Twilight, what are ya-" She got silenced by her friend's hoof.

Before them a second sphere of light, slashing lighting in the air, popped and vanished, leaving a stallion on the soil. First thing the mare caught was, he was an hearth pony, no horn on his brownish hair.

"Hello there!" The stallion greeted them. "Nice field you have here! A bit muddy but I won't complain. Now, please don't mind me, I'm simply a time lord looking for a dangerous mare who's trying to alter the past."

Twilight's grin was so anxious it was hurting, contrasting with Applejack's brow.

"Well since you're the only two mares here and despite your perfectly natural reactions I have to guess one of you is the criminal I'm looking for. How troublesome, I guess there is no other way but to test your knowledge of this period!"

The young unicorn was sweating as the time lord showed a history book he began to peruse rapidly.

"Alright then!" He raised his head. "How many garnets were there on the dress that stood on display in the Fashionata shop in Canterlot for seven straight months ?"

Before the purple mare could utter a word Applejack reacted: "How the hay should I know?!" And Twilight, a bit disappointed, lowered her hoof.

"Absurd! It is clearly stated in this book that mares of this period were craving for dresses. You cannot be of this period and not like dresses, that would be just silly!"

"Well I am from this period and I care for my hat and my plough, thank you very much." She grunted in return.

"Oh." The stallion reacted. "Here goes my dreams. Very well then! Let's try another question: how many alicorns is there?"

Applejack rolled her eyes, not even noticing Twilight who was trying frantically to count on her toe and eyes flying everywhere for an answer, under the pressure the studious mare suddenly tried:

"Twelve! No, seven, no, six! No wait!" And she plunged into her calculus again.

The cowmare shook her head: "There is Celestia, Luna, Cadence…" She couldn't say one more word.

"Ah ah!" The time lord cut her victoriously: "Cadence is not an alicorn but a musical notion!"

A few seconds of silence ensued, during which Applejack simply froze, astounded. Her lips ready to mutter disbelief, she faced that confident stallion and then simply put a hoof on her face.

"Maybe we should try a last question" the time lord guessed. "Safety before all after all! Let's see… oh, this one is funny!" He said flying through the pages. "Alright, I think I found one! Here we go: who is the current ruler of Equestria?"

Immediately the two mares answered, at the exact same time, their answers crossing each other: "Celestia!" The cowmare affirmed, "Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight yelled and then, panting, looked at the completely lost sight of her friend.

"Ya can't be the ruler!" She exploded: "Ya're here!"

"That's no matter" the stallion intervened, "my history book said prince Blueblood anyways."

And he gave it a skeptical look, pouted and threw it away, to Twilight's relief.

"Okay, that was some waste of time! Let's try a different approach." The brown pony smiled, then pointed at the student in her torn suit: "She is from the future, right?"

"Yup" Applejack confirmed with a nod.

Everything from then went in a flash, the mare trying to flee to be stopped as the stallion pointed a screwdriver at her and the glow on her horn waned away. She gave a desperate look at the cowmare before the blinding light took both her and the time lord away.

The brave mare realized she was alone again on her field, and she didn't know how to feel, relieved or guilty… when she felt the breeze on her mane. They had left with her hat.


	6. The hat

There was a stake in the soil and a stake at heart, she'd lost her hat. There was also this fence to repair so she shook herself and returned to work, slamming the wood down further. The noise was lost at the edge of the field, near the deserted path.

She stopped again, looked around, expecting, what... Applejack sighed, looked at her stake aligned just a moment her back leg twitched.

A blinding sphere throwing lightning made a thrill rush down her spine. The brown stallion appeared, trotting quietly out of the light with his little screwdriver between his teeth, then noticed the still mare.

"Good… afternoon it seems!" He looked at the landscape, then at his apparel: "Let's see, the lead ends here which means… and the only mare around is her, so… ah ah!"

And the time lord pointed his tiny gadget at the cowmare who couldn't even move before an electric shock turned her legs numb and made her fall.

"Why did you do that?!" She yelled at the smiling pony.

"Just arresting a mad mare wrecking havoc in the space continuum, that's all!" The time lord happily answered.

"You already arrested her!" Applejack was too dizzy to be angry.

"Preposterous! I would remember if… ah! I see! You met my future self from your past! This is very exciting, and a bit embarrassing too… but exciting nonetheless! It would imply that I will arrest that mare, how great!"

Her legs still asleep Applejack simply grunted, looked at that extravagant stallion. He looked at her in return, wondered:

"Are you sure you're not her by any chance? My sonic screwdriver says she should be around… bah!" He shrugged before her stern look. "I'll just follow the procedure and ask you some question! Let's see… how many elements of balance are there?"

"It's the elements of Harmony" she groaned.

"Darn it, I was never good at pony history!" The stallion smacked the ground with one hoof. "Of course it could be induced by all the mischief this mare has done, breaking the course of time in ways frighteningly uncertain, but, what are the odds?"

She had pretty much stopped listening, too many big words for her to care and the mare rolled her eyes, still on the ground, waiting to recover.

He noticed it, gnawed on the apparel which emitted a strident sound and she suddenly felt her hooves again. Applejack got up, stretched then smiled at the feeling.

"There, it should free you until we met again and I will probably have shocked you again in the near future, I know how light headed I can be sometimes!"

Both laughed, the cowmare not too sure why but as long as she could move, it was fine by her.

"I should also prepare my tests a tad more" the stallion continued. "Maybe buy a history book! I know a good market just a few centuries from now, it wouldn't be a long detour… in fact, it won't take me any time at all! Brilliant!"

Applejack nodded, a history book would definitely help for all she cared, as long as he would leave, when it struck her.

That alarm ringing inside her was the memory of what happened, would happen, who cared, as the stallion was about to depart she rushed to stop him:

"No! By all means, don't buy that book!" She screamed.

"Interesting." He raised an eyebrow. "And why shouldn't I?"

"Because if you do…" she stopped fast, realizing how familiar those words were, and the suspicious look the time lord was giving her. She looked away and, snout wrinkled: "nothing!"

The time lord kept watching her for a moment, making her sweat, then he happily nodded and, "ah!" squeezed the screwdriver between his teeth. The electrical shock made the mare hit the ground face first.

"No, wait, you can't be her!" The brown stallion then thought aloud. "I had already established that! I guess I was too eager and all! Very well then, I have a book to buy. Off I go!"

And in a blinding light he had left, and Applejack on the ground muttered words in her dizziness then saw another sphere throw lightning just a few steps from where the first had been.

The brown stallion reappeared, Twilight with him in her torn suit, the hat just over her bandage, looking down. The time lord leaped forth and:

"Wait! Listen to that mare, don't… rats, too late!"He then giggled. "Oh well, what's done is done!"

He returned to calibrating his little apparel as the student at his side realized where and when they were, saw Applejack shocked on the ground and the unicorn's face brightened. She pawed the ground then threw the Stetson hat down and waved her leg at the cowmare, joyfully, a second before the light engulfing her took her and the time lord away.

Why did she have the feeling that this Twilight had played with her again, Applejack couldn't tell. Her hat was there at least, so close and yet, with her legs numb, so far.


	7. The reality

Walls were white and white was the floor, when she woke up the young mare immediately leaped away from the corner of the room to look around. She had shrieked, attracting attention from the grey mare and her puffy hat at the kitchen.

"Heya Twilight! I am cooking breakfast!" The mare proudly said. "I used margarine just like you like it!"

And that pony showed some butter, noticed it was butter and offered a sheepish face. A bit shocked and a lot disoriented Twilight Sparkle touched her cheek, felt no cut, no bandage on her head and her mane was brushed, only ruffled by her current state of panic.

"But I have bananas!" The grey mare hastily picked up fruits with her mouth. "See? There is just enough for all three of us!"

"This is not good!" The unicorn stressed aloud. "This is awfully not good!"

"Oh..." Her speaker dropped ears and fruits. "You would have preferred apples. Sorry Twilight, I try really hard."

Interrupted in her storm of thoughts the studious mare couldn't help but feel bad for that mare fluttering her wings in sadness, and that innocent look.

But she shook her head, remembered her capture by the time lords. Only then did she notice the door, and the window to which she galloped and looked through, at Trotonto. In the future. Now it all made sense.

"You! You are a time lord!"

"Yay!" The time lord clapped her hooves in joy. "You remember me!"

"And you trapped me here in this cell in hope that I would reveal all of my plans to you!"

Cut in her joy the grey mare tilted a bit, then smiled anyway and at the ding plunged down to the oven to open it and take out her batch of peppery peppers that she began to put on the plates.

"Here you go!" She offered the plate of not sure what to Twilight. "The Doctor said you were still acting weird! But it's fine because we are good friends!"

"I'm not friend with the time lords!" The studious unicorn objected harshly.

"You are a time lord!" The mare's smile was warm and fuzzy. "You say we must keep harmony and prevent chaos in the time stuff. And then you get mad at me when I squash bugs."

Twilight stepped back, making the genuine mare step forth with her plate, one distressed and the other careless. Then it struck the studious mare:

"Ah ah!" She pointed out victoriously. "Your deceiving plot doesn't hold! Your colleague treated me like a criminal, so there!"

"Nuh uh!" The mare replied. "The Doctor told me your old friend Applejack was there. Applejack would never let somepony treat you bad!"

This wasn't possible Twilight thought, and already her face was showing doubts. She muttered, no, Applejack would never... But she grunted and stepping back some more:

"No! I know I am right! And it's not some stranger who will..."

Her voice lowered down to nothing when she watched, eyes wide, Spike walking into the room, the baby dragon go to a jar on the kitchen table, take some gems from it and swallow them, then mouth full: "Hey Twilight!" And leave.

She blinked, several times, making the grey pegasus giggle.

"See?" The time lord said. "Now let your good friend Derpy Hooves take care of you, okay?"

And Derpy offered the plate again to the lavender mare who, completely at a loss, didn't even notice it when she held it on her hooves.

"No, this must not be true! This must not be happening!"

"But I want it to..." The pegasus offered a sorry look. "Why-"

"Because!" Twilight gasped. "If it's true, this! is what happens!" And then she plunged down on the ground, snout under her legs. "I don't know anymore!" She almost cried.

The grey mare offered a hoof of comfort that made the unicorn's head raise a bit, her eyes humid. It was the perfect time she thought and Twilight's expression changed completely, defiant and victorious. The young unicorn jumped, pushed the grey mare aside then ran to the door.

She opened the door on Celestia.

She stood frozen as Celestia greeted her, "hello Twilight!" in her tender voice then walked to the kitchen to take a banana, and leave, closing the door on the studious mare.

In her back the grey pony was just as surprised: "What is she doing here?" the pegasus wondered, her snout slightly wrinkled, eyes astray.

"It can't be true..." Twilight's voice faltered. "I am... a time lord? I am a time lord." And she turned, desperate: "I am a time lord!"

"Yay!" Derpy clapped her hooves again, almost hopped and joyfully, went to embrace the trembling purple unicorn. "We are going to save the time thingy together again!"

"I... guess we are..." Twilight Sparkle was almost finding comfort in that idea. Still distressed, she offered a weak smile.

The grey mare offered her best smile in return, then went to the table to take a pen between her teeth, ready to write down on the report.

"Now, the Doctor says it's important to evaluate our performance! So on a one to ten, how convincing was my story?" She genuinely asked.

"What?"

"I even paid this dragon to play his part, did you see?" Derpy happily continued. "I think I deserve at least a seven!"

Mouth agape, the young unicorn began to breathe heavily, not even sure how she was still able to stand on her four, she put a hoof on her chest and thought, between relief and rage, how could a mare dare deceive ponies like that!


	8. The interrogation

They were like two foals playing with the odd eye-watching machine and its silly questions, the grey pegasus enumerating them as her studious guest, head bandaged in her leather suit, took pleasure to guess the answers. Around them the kitchen was quiet, all white and bright at their laughter.

"You are soup" the time lord read, "a delicious warm vegetable soup. How do you feel?"

"Mh a little splashy at the edges!" Twilight enjoyed watching the monitor go crazy.

Suddenly the machine stopped, blipped a bit then declared Twilight a robot. Both mares giggled, the time lord poking the machine then turning it off pushed it away and put forth a book on the kitchen table.

"So, you will tell me all of your plans now?" the grey mare genuinely asked.

And Twilight, with a bright smile: "Of course!" at what Derpy's smile was even brighter: "Really?" to which the even more bright smile of Twilight: "No."

The pegasus's ears flattened, blond mane hanging low, she put a sad muzzle on the first page of the book and gnawed on it. Then, very slowly, before Twilight's eyes she began reaping it. A tiny twitch ran on the studious face, but she quickly dismissed the issue. She defied the grey mare to do it as said mare chewed the page now torn apart and swallowed it.

"Do you think I get smarter that way?" The question was all innocent.

"You are wasting your time!" And realizing: "I mean, yes that too but, no," and she sighed, "that won't make me confess anything so you should stop. Really. Stop that."

The two adorable eyes glanced at the studious unicorn and her ruffled dark mane, wondering. Then the time lord put away the book with a smile, to bring forth a scroll. With a seal a thousand years old, as was the parchment, making Twilight's heart sink. "Yo… you wouldn't" she stammered as the joyful mare was about to bite it.

"But I really want to!" She defended, then smiling: "Except if you tell me your plans!"

"Sure! I will!" And Derpy: "Really?" so hopeful, so certain and adorably trusting, making the purple mare soften her tone: "No." She felt almost sorry when seeing the pegasus hurt and put out, then grimaced as the time lord began tearing the precious scroll apart.

She was trembling, this could have been… Twilight realized she had no idea what the scroll was, if there was anything on it. Still, she was sweating, a forced grin on her snout, even more forced when Derpy put the scroll away to show one of the student's own letters to the princess, at which point her head simply hurt, badly.

"Or," the time lord wondered aloud, "we could play mastermind! I really love mastermind!"

"Really?" Twilight rushed to ask.

"No, not really…" the young grayish pegasus admitted, looking away. "I don't even have a mastermind game here, I just wanted to stop hurting you because that's mean and I preferred when we played with the Boneighly test."

She looked so sorry, so embarrassed and down that Twilight Sparkle couldn't help but want to comfort her, and her foreleg already reaching across the table, she hesitated, then gave a warm smile.

"Alright. I can't tell you my plan, but I can at least tell you how I am going to escape."

And Derpy, all happy again: "Really?" To which with the brightest smile Twilight answered: "Really!" and she pointed behind the grey pegasus with a hoof.

The time lord turned to meet with Twilight Sparkle, tall and noble, horn sharp, face harsh, the muzzle mature pouting at her. It was the same ruffled mane, the same bandage, the same cut and the same torn suit but her eyes seemed used by time.

"Now" the stern voice warned, "you are going to faint like a good little pony" and Derpy obliged, looked up then fell down.

"That was rude" the first future Twilight got concerned.

"Schedule is tight" Twilight scolded, poking the unconscious mare, "and you have only yourself to blame. You took care of Applejack?"

The young student trying to brush her ruffled mane stopped and looked, then smirked one of those smirks at the severe glare of her counterpart. She smashed the table, getting up right away with high spirits:

"Not yet, but I have a plan!"

"Really" the skeptical tone dampened Twilight's enthusiasm.

"Okay it might need a tiny few adjustments here and there but mostly? Yes!"

"Good" and the tall purple mare making her dark mane flow a bit had something approaching a faint smile, "because I have a plan too." Already her horn was glowing, engulfing the room and in a bright light both were gone.


	9. The birds

Her pace at peace or at least so she wanted, Applejack approached the leafy library. The brave mare hesitated, fixed the hat on her head and reached the door to see it open before she could raise a hoof.

The young dragon who had appeared behind gasped at her sight, and she had to choke a laughter at the sight of Spike in a frolly dress covered with sprinkles and the tortoise attached to his head.

"I can't believe it!" He exclaimed, then swiftly ticked a case on a two pages letter. "Okay! Your dress is ready!"

"Beg your pardon?" She got cut and bristled when the young dragon took another frolly dress and put it on her soily coat. "What in tarnation are ya doing?!" She growled as he jumped on her back to sprinkle it in pawfuls.

"Trying to save us from phoenix bots!" He breathed leaping back and in the library where she heard miaowing. "She said she told you already!"

"Who?" the brave mare asked scratching the dress. And when she guessed, remembering the field and the studious mare: "Oh no! Oh no!"

The ruckus inside the library confirmed her that it was about future Twilight. Still, she tried: "She only wrote that she would be back!"

Spike reappeared holding Opal between his paws, climbed on the cowmare to attach the cat on her head, then ticked another case of the two pages letter, checked the post-scriptum.

"Well, she does say she only had six seconds." He noticed. "Short story? She escaped the time lords, whoever that is, and now they are sending phoenix bots to catch her accomplices, and those things breath fire!"

She wasn't quite sure about that but with a cat scratching her blond mane the brave mare quickly reacted:

"Accomplices? I denounced her!" She followed the dragon as he ran down the street, embarrassed at the sight of a few ponies. "I was coming to see Twi' out of guilt!"

"Tell the crazy phoenix bots that! I was sleeping the whole time!" Spike answered in his haste.

He was holding the letter, checking it again and again if not to avoid the ponies looking at them, chuckling and laughing. They were heading for the City Hall.

"Stop!" Spike ordered, skidding fast. "We have to steal those bells!"

And he pointed to two little brass bells left on the table of a restaurant, as if forgotten there, waiting to be picked.

"She wants us to steal?" Applejack blinked. "She can't seriously..."

The baby dragon had already grasped the two bells, muffling them to take them back and putting one in the mare's mouth.

"We must hurry! The phoenix bots will be there any minute!"

She mumbled in return, not liking it at all but they were running again, her in a trot to follow the little dragon through Ponyville.

Then they reached the City Hall where the mayor was about to make an annoucement, and the brave mare halted at the sight of the crowd gathered there.

"Tell me we don't have to go there" she gulped through the bell in her mouth.

"Actually" Spike checked it, "the letter says we have to tapdance in front of that crowd."

"That's it!" She spit the bell and reached for the rope holding Opal on her head.

"But!" Spike panicked. "The phoenixes! They'll zap us or worse!"

"I ain't gonna tapdance anything for that crazy Twilight looking mare! I bet my tail them bots don't even exist! Do ya even know what a bot is?"

"Uh..." He hesitated... "My guess would be a very bright light approaching way too fast towards us!"

She shuddered, stopped struggling with the knot and turned to see the four or five blinding sparkles over Ponyville's sky, almost saw the shape of the mechanical birds.

"Quick!" Spike yelled, and at that Applejack picked her bell, rushed after him picking him on her back to gallop on the scene, before the whole crowd and a confused if not angry miss Mare. As they began tapdancing, bells ringing, uneasy grins on their face, the brave mare swore a hoof for Twilight if it didn't work.

The phoenix bots were almost on them, all steamy, rusty and metallic, spotting them with red eyes and plunging when the crowd began laughing at the silly mare and dragon in their costumes and pets on their head. The laughter reached the birds who seemed disoriented more and more as the hilarity grew, and the artificial phoenixes lost their aim, flew blindly before bumping into each other and exploding.

"I can't believe it worked!" Spike triumphed, ticked the last case.

"Yeah." Applejack's voice was way less enthusiastic. She had caught the glare of Rarity in the crowd. "We're so better now..."

Only then did the baby dragon seem to realize in what spot they were, and after a glance at each other, a nod and a rush, both were gone.


	10. The cereals

Dawn had come on the farm, pouring rays of light in the kitchen just like the mare poured cereals into her bowl, the whole box then yawned and added milk pretty much everywhere. She blinked, looked at her mess and shrugged.

A ball of thunder roared near the door and Twilight hopped with her black torn suit, the back of her bandage flying wild from her hurry.

"Applejack, by all means!"

Applejack looked at her cereals, at her friend then gloomily asked: "Heya, want cereals?"

"By all means yes!" Twilight exclaimed, approached and sat before the bowl the farm mare had pushed for her. She plunged head first, munched noisily then glanced at her tired friend.

"Actually," she swallowed, "I came to apologize. I feel horrible for all you will endure."

"Oh chucks, it's... will?" But the earth mare brushed that nuance away with a wave of her straw like mane. "It's nothing, Twilight. I feel bad too, giving ya up to that time cop and all... Friends?"

"Friends!" The young unicorn went to hug the brave mare, and they held for a few seconds of quietness.

Then they released and Applejack noticed the table being cleaned from the milk as a plate floated with two oranges being sliced, the pieces offered before her by the studious mare who smiled, looking sorry.

"Oh eh!" The honest mare felt the need to talk of anything else. "Did ya know Rainbow Dash was readying for a competition? I mean..." she chuckled at the thought, "of course ya know, but your ya from now is probably the last unaware!"

Twilight giggled, pawing in embarrassment, then suddenly became somber. "We... should better not talk about it."

"What?" Applejack felt she was about to say something she would regret. "Why?" She regretted it immediately.

"No, really." The young student pleaded. "I... you don't want to hear it."

The more her friend refused, the more Applejack felt the urge to learn. "Does something horrible happen?" And seeing the unicorn nod, she wavered, ready to bite her hat out of anxiety. "Please Twilight, ya must tell me!"

"Rainbow Dash, she..." Twilight's voice was weak. "She will perform a Sonic Rainboom, right in front of the crowd." And with a sad, sad tone: "The crowd will love her, the Wonderbolts will recruit her, and then the princess..." She shut her eyes, spilled it: "The princess will help her train... help her train her Sonic Rainboom... as her personal student..."

She broke into tears, leaving the brave earth pony shattered. She didn't know how to react, she didn't know what to think! Reaching for her friend she offered a hoof of comfort.

"But rainbows won't be enough," The student went on before the hoof could touch her, "Rainbow Dash will have to try northern lights next. Then she will get addicted to constellations, until she will want to break the speed of light itself. And she will fail. Badly. And learn from it. She will become an hermit giving lessons on top of her mountain, and the Dash philosophy, or Dash Club, will become a cult dedicated to physical training. Ponies will thrive for adrenaline, savage games will take place, forcing Celestia to ban sport for the next thousand years." She bluntly stated.

"Darn." Applejack backed a bit. "Isn't banning sport a tiny bit extreme?"

Twilight gasped: "How dare you question the princess?"

"Well, I'm just saying..."

"She did what she had to do!" The young student stomped. "She is a great leader, you are just too blinded by your indulging in illegal adrenaline filled activities to see it!"

And she pouted, hooves crossed on the table before realizing where and most importantly when she was. "Sorry" she muttered, all embarrassed, which made her brave friend smile.

"Anyway" Twilight Sparkle instantly rejoiced "I already fixed that."

"What? When?" Applejack said, taken aback.

"Oh that was easy! By making you have a sleepless night, then, by making sure you would prepare cereals but! Eat orange instead, this! Is what happens!" She proudly triumphed. "You will be hungry before noon, forcing you to go to Sugarcube Corner and Rainbow Dash will meet you on the way. You will eat together and when she will return to her training, she will feel lonely."

And she squealed as the farm mare still tried to parse the very first bit where she had been manipulated.

"She will ask Fluttershy to cheer for her but it will be too weak, making her doubt so we'll want to go support her, but you need wings for that so Twilight – that's me – will give a pair to Rarity! That way she will steal the show from Dash then get close to the sun and lose them, and she will fall and Rainbow Dash will have to dive to save her. That way! Her Sonic Rainboom will happen close to the ground, way too far from the princess and the crowd for them to fully witness it."

Mouth agape, her hoof lifted somewhere between disbelief and denial, Applejack stammered.

"Of course," The student was still going, eyes rolling one hidden by the eye patch, "she will never be a Wonderbolts and Twilight Sparkle will stay the only very own student Celestia will ever have, but that doesn't really concern me. After all, I'm just from next Tuesday."

Then she so joyfully grinned to her stunned friend, excused herself, said "bye" and in a flash of light she was gone.


End file.
